Mississippi blues guitarist Ford's debut recording, Pee Wee Get My Gun, was warmly embraced by fans of blues and indie rock, and he has toured internationally with popular "hot jazz" revivalists the Squirrel Nut Zippers. W... more &raquohat's caught everyone's interest, brought T-Model fame of sorts, is his quirky, down-home personality and the wild abandon of his slash-and-burn blues--both, of course, displayed here on his sophomore effort. Sorry to say, for at least half the album, Ford should have heeded the album title. The eccentric little talks of "If I Had Wings, Parts 1 & 2" and the amplified blues of "To the Left and the Right" (with Spam on drums) inhabit a wasteland. Happily, a couple of tracks do merit repeated listens: mixer Jim Waters (Sonic Youth, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) forges snippets of Ford's fey jabber and boogaloo on "Pop Pop Pop," and Ford, playing solo guitar, provides a good, thoroughly lucid performance on "The Old Number," which appears to be a variant of Robert Petway's age-old "Catfish Blues." --Frank-John Hadley&laquo less

Synopsis

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Mississippi blues guitarist Ford's debut recording, Pee Wee Get My Gun, was warmly embraced by fans of blues and indie rock, and he has toured internationally with popular "hot jazz" revivalists the Squirrel Nut Zippers. What's caught everyone's interest, brought T-Model fame of sorts, is his quirky, down-home personality and the wild abandon of his slash-and-burn blues--both, of course, displayed here on his sophomore effort. Sorry to say, for at least half the album, Ford should have heeded the album title. The eccentric little talks of "If I Had Wings, Parts 1 & 2" and the amplified blues of "To the Left and the Right" (with Spam on drums) inhabit a wasteland. Happily, a couple of tracks do merit repeated listens: mixer Jim Waters (Sonic Youth, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) forges snippets of Ford's fey jabber and boogaloo on "Pop Pop Pop," and Ford, playing solo guitar, provides a good, thoroughly lucid performance on "The Old Number," which appears to be a variant of Robert Petway's age-old "Catfish Blues." --Frank-John Hadley

CD Reviews

Weak Tea

Jennifer Willoughby | Leonardtown, MD United States | 04/12/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Of the 3 T-Model Ford releases as of this date, this is by far the weakest. While there are a some good songs, there are several failed experiments (the remix is very bad). The raw guitar energy that characterizes his other two discs seems to come up short here.I just had to comment on the previous reviewers accusations. There are too many fantastic Ft Possum releases (like RL Burnside's "Burnside on Burnside) for this theory to have any validity. I do think that the folks at Fat Possum understand some of the underlying connections betweeen Punk and Blues and have managed to market their music into places where there is not normally much interest. I think this is great as it expands everyone's listening and cultural horizons.I find it quite cynical to take a poor example of the record label and use it to put forth some kind of racist conspiracy throry. Too dismiss an entire label's artists as being untalented and exploited based on a bad record astonishes me."

Raw, Lo-fi, underproduced rural Mississippi Blues

Jennifer Willoughby | 01/30/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"James "T-Model" Ford is the stereotypical old bluesman from rural Mississippi. However, he records for Blues/indie-rock label, Fat Possum out of Oxford, Mississippi. Ford's first album, _Pee Wee Get My Gun_, was "primitive" or lo-fi, up-beat, and had a peculiar emphasis on violence. _You Better_ doesn't live up to the quality or the intensity of the first. The album highlights Ford's idiosyncratic personality with songs like "These Eyes," in which Ford imitates a girlfriend's voice. A pretty good version of "Catfish Blues" also appears on the album as "The Old Number." An interesting blues remix also turns up on the album. "Pop Pop Pop" is in the same vein as the material on fellow Fat Possum artist, R. L. Burnside's Come On In. Overall, I believe, this album suffers from underproduction. A lot of the material sounds like a first take. T-Model Ford can play good music, but some rehearsal and refinement wouldn't hurt the quality of the music."

T-Model casts a world for everyone to become part of.

Jennifer Willoughby | 04/26/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is T-Model sitting under a tree inviting all people to come and enjoy his presence. Talk to him about taildragger and shake his hand and thank him for catching the world by the tail and taking humanity along. No stone unturned, everyone is called to help his life unfold. Ask him questions and he will direct you to a better day, playing two guitars with one hand, enjoying a drink, admiring beautiful women, singing to them his song of courtship. The day is long and time is short. Grab onto T-Model's cane and dance to his rhythms, enjoy this music and make his voice heard around the world. A reveiw by Olen Perkins"